Devil Worship in France

by A.E. Waite

[1896]

In spite of the sensational title, this book is actually a debunking
of a notorious late 19th century hoax.
Leo Taxil, a French anti-clericalist,
suddenly converted to Catholicism in the 1885 and
wrote a number of books in which he claimed that Freemasonry
was a world-wide satanic conspiracy.
Taxil started an anti-Masonic newspaper.
In 1887 Taxil even had an audience with Pope Leo XIII,
who subsequently sanctioned his anti-Masonic campaign.

Waite systematically debunks Taxil in this book, citing
factual inaccuracies, plagarism, and
sheer absurdities.
Waite is in top form here, witty, sarcastic, and utilizing
extensive firsthand knowledge of Victorian
mystical and masonic groups to demolish Taxil.
Of interest is Chapter VII,
wherein Waite gives a
detailed summary of Taxil's pulp-fiction narrative,
which has never been translated into English.
It is amazing that anyone would take this yarn seriously, then or now.

In 1897, the year after Waite published this book, Taxil announced
at a press conference that his conversion
was a fraud, the books he had written were complete fabrications,
and that he had published them to embarass the Catholic church.
His motive for targeting the Freemasons was because they had rejected his
application to join them.
Diana Vaughan, the central character in his
book The Devil in the Nineteenth Century,
was also fiction--Diana Vaughan was the name of one of his typists.

Unfortunately, no matter how absurd or discredited, this is the meme that
refuses to die.
Both Taxil and Waite have been quoted out of context numerous times
by anti-Freemasons, conspiracy theorists and the simply paranoid
to underpin their beliefs that Lucifer is secretly worshipped by Masons.
It is crucial that anyone investigating the issue (such as it is)
read this book in its entirety in order to get perspective.